Basic Infrastructure for Sustainable Development (Innovations Case Discussion: Gram Vikas)

Abstract

Rarely does the average person stop to consider the largely invisible and inter connected web of infrastructure that facilitates their modern existence, until it breaks down. At that moment, we become temporarily acutely conscious of the extraordinary power that these systems wield in our lives. Imagine the effect on your productivity if the infrastructure—roads, water, transport, health clinics, legal systems, etc.—functioned haphazardly, if at all. In the developed world, as soon as we become aware of our dependence on these systems, extensive maintenance and repair facilities spring to action and quickly restore our infrastructure’s invisibility. It is perhaps infrastructure’s aspiration to invisibility that explains why dominant development approaches typically fail to fully appreciate its importance, what it takes to protect and maintain it and, ultimately, what is possible without it. The case of Gram Vikas, as told by founder Joe Madiath, provides an interesting platform from which to explore the role of basic and appropriate infrastructure for sustainable development. Twenty years ago, “infrastructure” was defined primarily as the hardware associated with public works. Today the definition is expanded, owing to a better appreciation of the critical role infrastructure plays in supporting the fundamental social and economic functions of developed societies, as evidenced in American Heritage Dictionary’s (2000) current definition: